 "Amit Mitra")
In the first Budget of the second term of the Trinamool Congress-led government, Amit Mitra, finance minister of West Bengal, proposed a nearly 17% increase in state plan outlay at Rs 57,905 crore in 2016-17, over the Budget estimate of Rs 49,507 crore in 2015-16.
In FY16, the state overshot its expenditure target to Rs 53,101 crore (revised estimates for 2015-16), a 34% rise over 2014-15, an all-time record, said Mitra.
With debt projected to touch Rs 3.34 lakh crore in 2016-17, the state shied away, unlike some of the previous Budgets, from introducing any major social welfare scheme, barring some in the education sector. It also refrained from introducing any new revenue stream.
Since 2011, when the TMC came to power, the state took additional debt of Rs 1.13 lakh crore. Of this, Rs 94,533 crore was used for debt servicing alone, said Mitra. Notably, the proportion of debt to gross state domestic product in 2016-17 is set to increase to 33.7%, against the revised estimate of 32.5% in 2015-16. However, this marks a significant improvement since 2011-12, when it was 39.3%.
Tax revenue rose 9% to Rs 42,920 crore in 2015-16 (revised), against Rs 39,412 crore in 2014-15 (actual). However, the state missed its target of Rs 46,497 crore as set in Budget 2015-16. The own tax revenue to GSDP proportion is pegged to improve to 5.1% in 2016-17, against 4.6% in the earlier year. In addition, from a revenue deficit of a little over 1% in 2015-16, the state has projected a zero revenue deficit this year, a significant improvement over five years (2.8% in 2011-12).
The state has decided to do away with Settlement Commission, introduced for mutual settlement of long disputed tax issues. According to Mitra, since close to 8,000 cases had already been resolved through fast-track courts, there was no need for further extension of the Commission.
Observers believe this could be a step towards the state's preparation for a national goods and services tax (GST). "The aim of the Commission was to settle long-pending disputes. With GST, the Commission will have no relevance," said Timir Baran Chatterjee, tax expert.
The state has also raised the exemption limit of profession tax to Rs 10,000 a month, from Rs 8,500 earlier. It would not go for litigation where the disputed amount in an appeal order is less than Rs 1 lakh.
As part of its digitisation plan, the state has also done away with the requirement of a printed TDS certificate, replacing it with an online system. Further, to reduce litigation, the time limit for disposal of appeal cases in value added tax has been reduced from one year to six months. To provide relief to the tea industry, exemption from payment of rural employment and education cess has been extended by a year.
In education, the government has introduced an e-learning initiative, with an outlay of Rs 100 crore. Also, a scholarship scheme for low income groups with a corpus of Rs 200 crore.
According to Mitra, the increase in state plan outlay had led the state GSDP to increase in 2015-16 to Rs 9,20,083 crore, against Rs 4,60,959 crore in 2010-11.
